(1) Technical Field
The present investigation is related to a walking stick or other monopod which has an attachment in the form of a pooper scooper device and more specifically a monopod based device to collect and dispose of solid pet waste.
(2) Background Art
According to the 2013-2014 American Pet Products Association Inc. (APPA) National Pet Owners Survey, there are 83.3 million pet dogs in the United States alone. Dogs are very faithful companions and dog walking is a favorite activity among many dog owners. However, there is an obligation while walking a dog; to pick-up the dog wastes from any public place and dispose of it in a proper disposable bin. A good pooper scooper which can be carried during pet walk should be easy to carry, able to pick up solid pet waste without bending and without exposing pet owner to the pet waste, easily and hygienically able to carry after the pet waste has been picked up, allow easy disposal the waste and the device remain clean after their use.
There have been prior attempts to developing a pooper scooper and there are various designs that are patented and commercially available. However, these designs have their own objectives and thus are only useful in limited scope. Known prior inventions for pet waste collection on tubular platform includes; U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,200 issued to Mashayuki Yoshioka, described to insert the casing members inside the tubular body with a pair of casing members to hold a sack.
US20020140240A1 issued to Ernest Charette described for a pair of bag supporting pivoting arms which can be folded. U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,967 issued to Verlon M Brown has a collapsible stalk with a pair of hinged casing members. U.S. Pat. No. 7,232,165 issued to David Zelon, has a nested wand which can be extended by activation of an actuator. It also has a pair of prong unit to hang a disposable bag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,411 issued to Wang-On Kwok described for an extension handle with a V shaped resilient support arm and a cylindrical insert to lock the plastic bag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,050 issued to Searing et al. described for a bag frame attached at one end of the handle. The bag frame also has an actuator device to close the bag frame. However all these are the dung or animal waste collecting devices with a pair of bag supporting arms that collects the animal waste by directly placing the sack under the rump of the pet animal. These devices cannot be used to collect the pet waste from the ground. Known prior invention to collect the pet waste from the floor and are on tubular platform includes: U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,618 issued to Pedro Figueroa described for an elongated pole with a pair of pivoting arms. A bag is placed on the pivoting arm and scooped by trigger mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,310 issued to Ho Yin Lau described for an elongated pole with a pair of pivoting arm at lower segment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,073 issued to Jeffrey A Harrison described for a shovel with a disposable bag. These devices fulfill their respective objectives and requirements; however has the limitation that the pet waste remains below the pole. Hence it is not very comfortable to carry to pet waste disposal while pet waste is still in the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,544,413 to Abaragidan Gnanendran is a waste bag dispenser for the pet waste and not useful to collect the pet waste from the floor.
The structure, purpose and mechanism of these patents are totally different than the proposed invention. The proposed invention is mainly developed for a pet walk. It is a monopod or walking stick and a hopper shape box attached at lower segment of the stick. It is used to collect the pet/dog waste from the ground and pet waste remains stored in the pooper scooper device and above the walking stick base hence it is easy to carry for the disposal.